Written from the heart, this is the unadulterated truth of life with multiple chronic illnesses and being housebound. My life open for you to follow. Please join me

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One thing after another

I wasn’t even fully awake when I went into the kitchen to find there was water pouring into the back of the house. I don’t know when it started, but the cause was easy to both hear and guess at, we were in the midst of what the weathermen were saying were the conclusion of overnight thunderstorms. At a guess, some of the pointing on the back of the building has failed, as the water was quite clearly coming in well above the window and straight through the wall. Trying to clean it up from my wheelchair was impossible, all I could do was mop up what I could reach and to place the fruit bowl where the worst drips, where still racing into the kitchen. I had to fill it with kitchen towel, so that the drips that were large and moving at speed, didn’t make any more mess. By the time I left the kitchen, my arms were knackered and my feet soaking as I had to stand several times, clearing up the remains will be down to Adam when he comes home from work.

I returned to the living room, sure that that was it and I simply got on with my day. Two hours later, I had to head for the bathroom, where I found a large bubble, half again the size of my hand, bulging out of the wall. The water had clearly made its way along the wall divider between the kitchen and bathroom and the flat above, eventually running down the corner below the wallpaper. It was bulging so badly that I had no choice other than to fetch a knife and more kitchen towel, before gently bursting it and trying to smooth the paper back onto the wall. Clearly, it had stretched tremendously, and there is no way of making it flat again until it had started to dry out if it will ever lie flat again. Staying calm when you are faced by what clearly means, the factors having to be called out to see the damage; more bills to pay for the external repairs, which at least will be split between all the flat owners; then insurance assessors to cover the cost of the repairs in the bathroom, not to mention having the people here to fix all the internal damage as well, has turned out to be not as hard as it would have been a couple of weeks before.

Life was just falling nicely back into something that felt like normal and now all this happens. At first, it felt like one of those things that was designed to destroy more than just the decor. To my surprise, though, I found that once I had cleaned up what I could, burst the bubble behind the wallpaper and slowly accepted it had happened, and there was nothing I could do, other than getting on with it, that I was still fine. I did take myself through to the bedroom and allowed myself fifteen minutes of just lying there in silence, clearing my mind and my body from any stress that was trying to build. I just wanted to nip it all in the bud, as I have no intention of falling back into the muddle of just two weeks ago. It is amazing how when you are determined to hold things together, just how by taking some positive action against it, actually works. Even when I returned to the bathroom a couple of hours later to see how the patch was drying, I felt quite relaxed sitting perched on the arm of my wheelchair, dabbing away the dampness and trying to flatten out the wrinkles in the paper. It’s all about attitude and determination. The only residue that I couldn’t shift, was the pain and tiredness that settled in my muscles. Well, you never get away scot-free, there is always some price to pay.

By the time Adam came home from work, there was little to see of the earlier deluge. The fact that we may have had rain, didn’t break the heat that the later day held. The water I failed to get, just evaporated. I was still quite happy to hand the remaining work over to him. He can do all the phone calls required and hopefully, handle the builders who we clearly need to repair the outside, as for the inside, well, it dried so well, that other than washing the curtains, there is nothing to do. This time, we were lucky, I just hope the weathermen are wrong and that it isn’t going to return tonight. Trust me, it’s not a good way to start anyone’s day, as health or not, you have to clear it up, I couldn’t just leave it, as Adam said I should when I showed him what I had done. There is something that is cut into us deeply, we all are driven to protect our homes. Seeing it being damaged in front of my eyes, drove me on to rescue and restore whatever I could, no matter how hard it was. Without a doubt, I would do just the same again if it were needed.

I slept well that night, but when I woke today, I felt, even more, the results of my exertions. There is a tiredness that I didn’t expect, as the whole of yesterday, I felt totally in control of what was happening and my body. I have to say the way that I feel, wasn’t helped by Adam this morning. He didn’t say good morning to me as he normally does, he just launched into an explanation of what had happened just after I went to bed. No, the rain didn’t return, he went for a shower as he always does, but hadn’t been in there more than it took to wet his hair when the shower blew up. Yes, the new shower we had fitted less than two months ago. Life really isn’t going to let us have an easy ride of it. Now we need to make a claim to the company who made it and the hassle of having their engineers here to replace it. What was I saying about life not just letting us live our lives in peace? My stress leaves have been rising steadily since then, my arms are tense and everything that I am asking them to do, they are doing with a huge dose of resentment. I fully intend once the district nurse has visited today, that I will be heading back to bed for another session of distressing. We might have all the best intensions in the world, but when life takes over, all we can do is run with it and just hope for the best.

Wow! Kudos for hanging on the best you could. I don’t think I could have been so calm. It is challenging when we can’t control our environment and you appear to have just let it flow through you (bad pun I’m sorry) lol

I think the fact that what I could do from my wheelchair was so limited, that I had no other choice really. I have found that recently when even something small happens, if I can’t change it, I just let it happen. It’s a different world once you move onto wheels, it changes far more than just how you move around. 🙂

Ok, only because I grew up in an old, moldy farmhouse in New England – go back and treat all the areas where the wetness was with mold / mildew fighter or retardant, as you’re not going to know what happened until things dry out and mold / mildew start to grow in the house. By adding the treatment now, while the area is still damp, you stand a good chance of fighting that challenge to your breathing.

And, if they have to take down walls, etc., think about redesigning the space to fit your needs as a person in a wheelchair. Just a suggestion about how to be more comfortable, turning a tragedy / hassle into a potential improvement for yourself.

Someone else put that idea into my head the other day. Yes, having a bigger bathroom would be wonderful. It would make the problem of going to the toilet in the future, much easier. Just one huge problem, where do I put the washing machine, tumble dryer, dishwasher and microwave? Every great idea I or someone else has about this flat, causes another problem. When the Victorians built, they didn’t build for the modern world, far less, for the disabled. Seriously though, thanks for the mildew idea, we have spray in the house so I shall ask Adam to spray it around liberally. Your quite right, I really don’t need mildew.

Yes, mildew is deadly !! It nearly did me and Joey in when we lived in our house. The house was a pretty good size and was surrounded, nearly cover by trees. We didn’t know those trees that we loved so much were causing our home to slowly kill us.
That was where I started getting so much sicker. We found out by accident that we were living in black mold. And that’s one of the things I’m very allergic to. So please have it checked for mold.
And do you realize that you did it ! You handled all that work by your self (at least most of it). You don’t sound like you paniced any more than any one would , and YOU DID IT !! You could have sit back and cried and felt sorry for yourself and given up,,,,but you did it. I dont know about you but I think you handled a major event today !-!
Whenever something like that happens and I get trough It on my own, I want to jump up and down and cheer for myself ! Of course I dont but K do cheer and do a little victory dance. Good for you friend You did it !!!

To me, it was a case of I had no choice. I didn’t think of what it might do to me, I just headed straight in and did it. Yes, I ached all over and was far more tired than usual, but as you said, I did it. 😀